Most Popular Languages In The World

The late Bob Marley is quoted as having once said “one good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain” and today we’ll be looking at the most important aspect of music which is language.

Language is something that is of national heritage to any given country and our focus shall be on which the most popular languages in the world are.

Apart from music, language happens to be what holds the entire planet together in that it helps people to interact and understand each other and this in turn makes it possible for people from different ethnic backgrounds to work together so as to move the world forward in terms of global development and as you’ll get to see, the economies that drive the world are well represented in the list of the 25 most popular languages in the world.

So How Did I Come Up With The Most Popular Languages In The World?

I decide to use Wikipedia to come up with “my list” of the most popular languages in the world and they in turn used the estimates from Nationalencyklopedin.

The data is based on 2007 estimates and although every effort was made to be as precise as possible regarding which the most popular

languages in the world are, some countries do not record the language spoken when conducting their censuses hence lists that seek to compile a list of the most popular languages in the world heavily rely on estimates.

I believe I’ve said enough so let’s now get to see which the 25 most popular languages in the world are.

The 25 Most Popular Languages In The World

Language	Native Speakers In Millions	% Of World Population	Countries Where Spoken
Mandarin	955	14.1%	China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore
Spanish	407	5.85%	Hispanic America, Spain, United States, Equatorial Guinea
English (Most Popular International Language)	359	5.52%	Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, Singapore
Hindi	311	4.46%	India
Arabic	293	4.23%	North Africa, Western Asia (Middle East)
Portuguese	216	3.08%	Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal
Bengali	206	3.05%	Bangladesh, West Bengal (India), Tripura (India), Assam (India)
Russian	154	2.42%	Russia, former Republics of the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Israel
Japanese	126	1.92%	Japan
Punjabi	102	1.44%	Punjab region (Pakistan, India)
German	89	1.39%	Austria, Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy), Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, South Tirol (in Italy)
Javanese	82	1.25%	Java (Indonesia)
Wu	80	1.20%	Zhejiang, Shanghai, southern Jiangsu (eastern China)
Malay/Indonesian	77	1.16%	Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore
Telugu	76	1.15%	Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry (India)
Vietnamese	76	1.14%	Vietnam
Korean	76	1.14%	North Korea, South Korea
French	74	1.12%	Belgium (Wallonia, Brussels), Canada (particularly Quebec, New Brunswick and Eastern parts of Ontario), France, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, French Caribbean, French Polynesia, various islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Marathi	73	1.10%	Maharashtra (India)
Tamil	70	1.06%	Tamil Nadu, Karnataka (India), Puducherry (India), Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius
Urdu	66	0.99%	Pakistan, India
Persian	65	0.99%	Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan
Turkish	63	0.95%	Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria
Italian	59	0.90%	Italy, Switzerland, San Marino
Cantonese	59	0.89%	Canton Province, southern Guangxi (southern China), Hong Kong, Macau

NB: The earth’s population is about 7.1 billion as of 2013 so you can add that figure when computing the percentage for the above most popular languages in the world.

Apologies are in order for all the geeks whose official language “Geek”, hasn’t been recorded among the 25 most popular languages in the world.

(Most Popular Languages In The World: Image Above Courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net)

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